Seventh- and eighth-grade students at St. Joan of Arc School, Nashotah, are getting a taste of entrepreneurship in the form of selling coffee.

The students have started a nonprofit coffee shop, Coffee and Chill. It operates Thursday mornings, and students make and serve fair trade coffee. All the money raised is donated to charity.

On April 26, their first day open for business, students sold an estimated 25 cups of coffee, helping them meet all of their start-up costs.

The business grew out of students' study of economics through the social studies program. As they learned about how entrepreneurs think and how they serve others, students came up with the idea to provide coffee, which the school had done, off and on, during past Thursday mornings for parents who were dropping off their children.

Principal Holly Cerveny noted that the shop meets the need of parents to get coffee on their way to work, while also teaching students economic standards and about entrepreneurship through starting their own small business.

The service component, student-led

Service is also an important component of the business.

"Because we are a Catholic school, service is a huge part of our mission," Cerveny said, "so looking at a way that we would be able to take the profits, not for ourselves or to be able to purchase things for ourselves, but to be able to give to others was an important part of that process.

"The children went through the process of investigating who they wanted money to go toward and making the decision of who would be the beneficiaries of any of the profits from the business."

After consulting the church's priest, students decided the profits would go to Zachariah's Acres, a place for those with special healthcare needs to enjoy nature and agriculture, and Family Promise, which provides for the needs of those who are homeless and helps them to attain independence.

"They've created their own design for their signage, their marketing materials," Cerveny said. "Everything that has been done to be able to begin this project — other than, obviously, teacher guidance — has been done by the children."

UW-Whitewater professors give advice

Before the shop opened, professors Choton Basu and Kevin Kaufman of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater visited with students to speak with them about starting a small business.

Cerveny said the professors asked students questions they wouldn't have thought about otherwise.

For example, the professors talked about the example set by Starbucks.

"Is Starbucks really selling coffee, or are they selling an experience or what are they selling?" Cerveny said. The kids reflected on those questions and decided "It's not just about going in and grabbing a cup of coffee. It's about something more. It's an environment that's set up, it's the way that you feel about hanging out there, all those types of things.

"So they were able to take a lot of what they learned from these gentlemen, both in how to develop their ideas, how to market, how important it is to communicate their cause, and how to set up their environment so that people want to come."

Students also learned about pricing, taking into consideration labor costs, materials and the like.

Future plans, reaction

The students plan to open the shop each Thursday morning through May. The shop is open at the same time as a toddler gym opening nearby. Cerveny said the school is already talking about how to keep the project going next year with this year's fifth- and sixth-graders.

So far, Cerveny said the reaction has been positive from staff, parents, church and community members.

For example, students created a chalkboard with a conversation starter that encouraged customers to ask them about the eighth-graders' recent spring break trip to Thailand.

"They really put a lot of thought into what they were doing, and people seemed to be really impressed by that and enjoy having the opportunity to talk to the students — and it's great communications skills for the students to be able to do that as well," Cerveny said.

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